JPH0864314A - Multicontact type connector assembly - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a high density connector assembly which has a large number of signal contacts with a fixed pattern and ground contacts with mini mum misalignment. CONSTITUTION: Two lead frames 12A, 12B having contacts 9A, 9B at prodetermined intervals, respectively, are overlapped and bent being displaced so that each contact 9A, 9B is aligned in row in the same plane. Afterwards, these lead frames are fixed to an insulation housing block 16 with plastic mold, etc. A signal wire and a ground wire of an electric cable 1 are soldered or welded to fixed contacts 9A, 9B. In addition, the necessary number of contacts are inserted to and held in a slot of an insulation housing 39, a multi-contact connector assembly 6 being provided.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to electrical connectors, and more particularly to a multi-contact connector assembly having a large number of contacts arranged in high density.

[0002]

2. Description of the Prior Art The connector assembly disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,877 connects to a conductive ground bus which connects to a ground wire of at least one electrical cable and a signal wire of at least one electrical cable. It consists of conductive signal contacts. The signal contact is connected to the ground bus. In addition, an insulating housing block is provided on the contacts, at least one selected of the contacts being removable from the ground bus and at least one of the signal contacts remaining connected to the ground bus. The connector assembly is configured to facilitate manufacturing.
For example, the contact and the ground bus are connected by a lead frame, eliminating the need for separate parts. The housing block effectively holds the contacts in place when the contacts are connected to the wires. The contacts are held at a constant pitch corresponding to the pitch of the contact receiving cavities of the insulating housing. The contacts are assembled together within the housing cavity rather than individually.

The contacts on the thin metal leadframe can easily flex to displace. Therefore,
There is a risk that the contacts will be held in this misaligned state by the housing block. For example, the housing may be injection molded of flowable plastic material over a portion of the contacts. The hardened plastic material holds the contacts in place. If the contacts are misaligned when the housing is formed, the contacts are held in the housing while being displaced.

There is then concern about whether the contacts are properly aligned with the contact receiving cavities when ready to be assembled into the contact receiving cavities of the housing. Due to the dimensional tolerances of the contacts themselves and the cavity, some misalignment is inevitably present at all times. However, as mentioned above,
Greater misalignment can occur due to the difficulty in adding the housing block to the contacts. These misaligned contacts are forcibly inserted into the cavity and may be damaged. Furthermore, the contacts can be misaligned within the cavity.
Therefore, there is a need to prevent damage to the contacts during insertion into the cavity and to reduce assembly manufacturing time due to careful insertion of the contacts. Furthermore, there is a need to prevent contact rotation, which is a type of misalignment within the cavity.

It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to prevent or minimize the occurrence of the aforementioned misalignment by properly guiding the contacts during insertion into the corresponding cavities of the insulating housing.

[0006]

The present invention has at least one feature.
Figure 3 is a multi-contact connector assembly having a contact connected to a wire of an electrical cable and an insulating housing block provided on the contact for holding the contact during connection to the wire of the electrical cable. The contacts of the connector assembly are formed by aligning first and second lead frames each having a series of contacts formed in parallel with each other and bending them to form a parallel row. The housing block holds the contacts at a predetermined distance from each other.

According to the multi-contact type connector assembly of the present invention, the first lead frame and the second lead frame having a large number of signal contacts and ground contacts connected to, for example, the signal wire and the ground wire of the electric cable are used. The contact bases of these lead frames are bent and displaced from each other so that the signal contacts and the ground contacts are arranged in a line in a predetermined pattern. Then, it is fixed to the housing block by insert molding or the like. If necessary, such a connector assembly is inserted and fixed in a plurality of rows in an insulating housing with a slot to obtain an electric connector having a large number of contacts.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. First, referring to FIG. At least 1
The electrical cable 1 of the present book is provided with a dielectric 3 concentrically around an elongated signal wire or a central conductor, and further covered with a flexible insulating outer jacket 4 or a sheath. A corresponding elongated and conductive ground wire 5 or drain wire extends inside the jacket 4 outside the dielectric 3. Cable 1
May include one ground line 5 as shown, or may include a combination of one signal line 2 between two ground lines 5 including the first and second ground lines 5. . The present invention can be applied to a cable, but can be applied to a cable other than the cable not shown. Jacket 4 if applied to cable
To signal wire 2, dielectric 3 and corresponding ground wire 5
To expose.

Next, description will be made with reference to FIG. The electrical connector assembly 6 is connected to one or more cables 1 in the following manner. The connector assembly 6 is assembled by the electrical contact 9
Starts with the array of. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, each contact 9 projects forward from an elongated ground bus 10. A series of pilot holes 11 are formed through the ground bus 10. When the contact 9 is connected to the ground bus 10, it becomes a lead frame with reference numeral 12 or 12A as shown in FIG. The lead frame becomes a row of conductive paths, and metal strips are cut out so that the conductive paths are connected to each other.
Each contact 9 includes a pair of fingers (fingers) 13 spaced apart from each other to form an electrical receptacle 14 at the front end.
The fingers 13 are cut from the metal strip when the metal is flat. The fingers 13 of each contact 9 are bent and bent up from the surface of the metal strip to face each other to form a receptacle 14 therebetween for receiving the mating contact. The pitch between the contacts 9 is constant in the column direction. The fingers 13 are formed by cutting the metal strip portion of the bridge portion between adjacent contacts.

As shown in FIG. 2, the two lead frames 12A and 12B to which the contacts 9 are attached are superposed on each other so that the contacts 9 are arranged in a line. When the two lead frames 12A and 12B are overlapped with each other, the pitch between the contacts 9 of the lead frame becomes small, and miniaturization can be realized. With reference to FIG. 2, one of the contacts 9 is shown by a broken line, one contact 9 of the lead frame 12A can be removed, and one contact can be removed from the series of contacts 9. The contacts 9 of the lead frame 12A are arranged alternately with the contacts 9 of the other lead frame 12B. FIG. 13 shows a case where all the contacts 9 are arranged at a constant interval without being removed.

Next, a description will be given with reference to FIGS. 1, 3, 4, and 5. An insulating housing block 16 is formed on the contact 9 that is still connected to the lead frames 12A and 12B. For example, the insulating housing block 16 has contacts 9
It is formed by injection molding a fluid plastic material adhered to the. Front wall at the front end 17 of the housing block
18 are formed orthogonal to the row of contacts 9. The housing block 16 extends to the rear wall 20 from which the ground bus 10 extends. The wire connection 21 of the contact 9 appears in a spaced opening 22 formed by molding the housing block 16. The housing block 16 holds all the contacts 9 at a predetermined pitch. Contact 9
Is on the first and second frames 12A and 12B, and the contact 9A of the first lead frame 12A and the second lead frame 12A
The 12B contacts 9B are arranged in a line.

A wire receiving channel 25 formed by molding the housing block 16 extends from the rear wall 20 and also extends axially forward of the corresponding contact 9. With reference to FIG. 11, the signal wire 2 and the ground wire 5 of the cable 1 extend along their respective channels 25. Signal wire 2 has corresponding contact 9 along channel 25
To the wire connection portion 21 of the. Each ground wire 5 is along each channel 25 a corresponding wire connection portion 21 of the contact 9.
Extend to.

Details of the construction of the housing block 16 are disclosed in US Pat. No. 4,875,877, which discloses:
A wire grip 33 on the housing block 16 is provided for gripping and aligning the wires 2 and 5 extending along the wire connection 21. Furthermore, the connection between the corresponding wire 2 or 5 and the wire connection 21 is made by a welding or soldering operation. As shown in FIG. 11, each contact 9 connected to the signal wire 2 is a signal contact 9A. Each contact 9 connected to the ground wire 5 is a ground contact 9
B. Each contact 9 is lead frame 12A, 12B
The lead frame 12 at the cutout portion 38, which is the narrow portion of
It is connected to A and 12B.

As will be apparent with reference to FIG. 2, the advantage or advantage of the present invention is that all signal contacts 9A have respective cutouts.
38 is releasably connected to one of the lead frames 12A. This advantage will become more apparent with reference to FIGS. According to this, the signal contact 9A is separated from the rest of the lead frame 12A,
And, for example, by cutting and removing the cutouts 38, they are separated from each other and the ground bus 10 is separated from the signal contact 9. The rest of the lead frame 12A is discarded when it is no longer needed.

Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, another advantage of the present invention is that the leadframes 12A, 12B are bent, as shown at 7, so that the contacts 9 of both leadframes 12A, 12B are coplanar. . If the contact 9 is in the same plane, it contributes to positioning the contact 9 in an accurate position,
This is especially important for placing each contact in a precise location. Furthermore, the contact 9 is attached to the insulating housing 39.
It is especially important for preventing damage to the contacts 9 when inserted therein and connected to the corresponding wires 2 and 5. FIG.
And with reference to FIG. 4, accurate alignment of the contacts 9 can be further achieved in the following manner. The cutout 38 is attached and extends between the contact 9 and the corresponding ground bus 10.
This cutout 38 is bent along its entire length, making its front end a common plane. As a result, the bent cutout portion 38 orients the contacts 9 of both lead frames 12A and 12B in a common plane relationship.

Referring to FIGS. 6-9, the common surface contact 9 is held in precise alignment when the insulating material of the housing block 16 is provided. For example, the insulating material is provided in an injection molding process with conventional mold dies 8,15, the injection molding apparatus 19 holds along the separation line 23 of the dies 8,15, while the insulating material is in the die cavities 24,26. To form the housing block 16. The metal thickness of the contact 9 is clamped between the dies 8 and 15 and held stationary. The clamped metal thickness blocks the flow of flowing insulating material. This prevents insulating material from overlying the wire connection 21 of the contact 9 and over the portion of the contact 9 protruding from the front end 14 and rear wall 20 of the housing block 16. The solidified housing block 16 holds the contacts 9 at predetermined positions at predetermined pitch intervals after taking out the contacts 9 from the dies 8 and 15.

The row of contacts 9 of FIGS. 10 and 11 is arranged by a series of contacts 9 to form a first lead frame 12A.
The contacts 9 are alternately arranged with the contacts 9 of the second lead frame 12B. When the first lead frame 12A is cut off, the corresponding contacts 9 are individually separated into the signal contacts 9A. The contact 9 of the second lead frame 12B is a ground contact 9B connected to the ground bus 10 of the second lead frame 12B. In the series of contacts 9, the signal contacts 9A and the ground contacts 9B can be arranged in a desired pattern. This pattern is repeatable along the series. This pattern is particularly useful when the pitch spacings are close to each other and each signal contact 9A needs to be adjacent to at least one ground contact 9B connected to a reference potential. As a result, each ground contact 9B protects each signal contact 9A from the electrical influence that induces an undesired voltage on the signal contact 9A. In the configuration shown in FIG. 11, two ground wires 5 of two different cables 1 are connected to the same ground contact 9B. However, other configurations are possible, and for example, one ground wire 5 may be connected to each ground contact 9B.

Another configuration is disclosed in FIG. 12, the second
The lead frame 12B is disconnected from the ground contact 9B, separating the ground contacts 9B from each other and eliminating the corresponding ground bus 10. With this configuration, each ground contact 9
B is connected to the corresponding ground wire 5 without a bus connection to the other ground contact 9B.

FIG. 13 shows a first ground bus 10 and a second ground bus 10.
Another arrangement is disclosed in which the and are connected by, for example, welding or soldering operations. At least one contact 9A of the first lead frame 12A is connected to the first lead frame 12A.
Remains grounded to ground bus 10 of FIG. The contact 9 separated from the lead frame 12A or 12B by cutting off the cut portion 38 becomes the signal contact 9A separated from both the lead frames 12A and 12B and the other contact 9. This makes the figure
13 has selected contact 9A for each lead frame 12
A configuration is disclosed that results in a conductive ground bus 10 that is cut away from A, 12B and both leadframes 12A, 12B are connected to contacts 9B that remain connected.

As shown in FIGS. 20 and 21, the contact 9 has a fin 27 projecting laterally on its major axis. The fins 27 of the contacts 9 of the first lead frame 12A and the second lead frame 12B are pushed into the common plane before providing the insulating housing block 16 and before fixing the fins 27 to the common plane by the housing block 16.

The features of the multi-contact type connector assembly of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 14 to 21. The contact 9 projects forward of the housing block 16 to allow assembly with the insulating housing 39. The housing 39 includes a number of contact receiving cavities 40 spaced at a pitch spacing corresponding to the contacts 9. Contact group 9
Is fully assembled in the cavities 40 arranged in line in FIG. 14, with the front end 17 of the housing block 16 engaging the rear 41 of the housing 39. For convenience of illustration, the contact 9
The cable 1 connected to is omitted in FIG.

Next, referring to FIGS. 18 to 21, the cavity
A method of inserting the contact 9 into the 40 will be described. A void 28 exists between the cavity 40 and the finger 13 of the contact 9, allowing the finger 13 to be inserted into the cavity 40 without excessive frictional resistance. In addition, the void 28 provides a finger 13 when a conductive terminal post (not shown) is inserted into the receptacle 14.
Enables movement (or displacement). The void 28 is the contact 9
Allows undesired movement within the cavity 40. Therefore, as will be described later, the fin 27 holds the contact 9 in the cavity 40 to prevent the above-mentioned undesirable movement.

The fins 27 are inserted along the slits 29 in the housing 39 and guide the contacts 90 into alignment along the cavities 40. The front edge 30 of the fin 27 has a taper, and a tapered surface is formed along the corresponding slit 29.
30 Insert friction resistance is reduced. Each fin 27 has a laterally projecting barb 31 extending diagonally rearward to prevent it from entering the housing 39 and rearward contact 9 as shown in FIG. The barbs 31 are dimensioned laterally to frictionally engage opposite sides of the corresponding slit 29. The barbs 31 are behind the fingers 13 which allows the cavities 40 to engage before the barbs 31 engage the sides of the slit 29.
The contact 9 can be inserted along the line. Each fin 27 is formed to extend laterally and has a rearward facing shoulder 32 facing the rearward facing shoulder 34 at the stepped wide portion of the slit 29. The front end 17 of the housing block 16 engages the housing 39 to prevent the contact 9 from moving forward. The fins 27 of the slit 29 are flat sides 36 of the contact 9 (see FIG. 1).
(See FIG. 19, FIG. 19) against the flat sidewall 35 of the cavity 40 to prevent the contact 9 from rotating in the cavity 40. As a result, the contact 9 is
It will be held in the correct position within 40.

Although the multi-contact type connector assembly of the present invention has been described in detail above with reference to the embodiments, the present invention should not be limited to such embodiments, and various modifications may be made if necessary. You can see that it is possible.

[0026]

As will be understood from the above description, a large number of electrical contacts arranged in parallel in a row can be constructed by stacking two contact strips, and the contacts of both strips can be formed by bending both strips. Can be arranged in the same plane.

Further, the row-shaped electric connector is constructed by stacking two contact strips on each other, and one of the strips is left connected to the ground contact serving as the ground bus.
The other strip can be cut out into a number of separate signal contacts. Therefore, the signal and ground contacts having the desired arrangement (pattern) can be easily assembled and manufactured.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial perspective view of an insulating housing block and two lead frames of a connector assembly of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the two lead frames shown in FIG.

3 is a side view of the connector assembly shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged view of the lead frame portion of FIG.

5 is a partial plan view of the connector assembly shown in FIG.

6 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 6-6 of FIG.

7 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 7-7 in FIG.

8 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 8-8 of FIG.

9 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 9-9 of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Electrical Cable 2, 5 Wire 9 Contacts 12A, 12B Lead Frame 16 Housing Block 6 Connector Assembly 39 Insulated Housing

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] August 10, 1995

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Name of item to be corrected] Brief description of the drawing

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial perspective view of an insulating housing block and two lead frames of a connector assembly of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the two lead frames shown in FIG.

3 is a side view of the connector assembly shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged view of the lead frame portion of FIG.

5 is a partial plan view of the connector assembly shown in FIG.

6 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 6-6 of FIG.

7 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 7-7 in FIG.

8 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 8-8 of FIG.

9 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 9-9 of FIG.

FIG. 10 is a plan view of the assembly with ground contacts connected to the ground bus.

11 is a plan view showing a state in which a cable corresponding to three contacts of the assembly of FIG. 10 is connected.

FIG. 12 is a plan view of the assembly with the ground bus removed.

FIG. 13 is a plan view of the assembly with ground contacts connected to corresponding ground buses and signal contacts separated from the ground buses.

FIG. 14 is a perspective view of an insulating housing that receives an assembly of the type shown in FIG.

FIG. 15 is a perspective view of an insulating housing.

16 is a front view of the housing of FIG.

FIG. 17 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 17-17 in FIG.

18 is a longitudinal section of the housing taken along the line 18-18 of FIG. 16 and a side view of the assembly of FIG. 10 in their pre-assembled view.

19 is a longitudinal cross section of the housing taken along line 18-18 of FIG. 16 and a side view of the assembly of FIG. 10, showing the assembled condition thereof.

20 shows a cross-section of the housing of FIG. 16 and a plane of the assembly of FIG. 10 in their pre-assembled state.

21 is a cross-sectional view of the housing of FIG. 16 and a plan view of the assembly of FIG. 10, showing the assembled state thereof.

[Explanation of symbols] 1 electric cable 2, 5 wire 9 contacts 12A, 12B lead frame 16 housing block 6 connector assembly 39 insulating housing

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (72) Inventor Keith Scott Kogel 17112 Ringerstown Lancaster Avenue, Pennsylvania, United States 669 (72) Inventor Tracy Lee Smith, Pennsylvania, USA 17112 Harrisburg Sawmill Road 925

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A multi-contact type connector set having at least one contact connected to a wire of an electric cable, and an insulating housing block provided on the contact for holding the contact during connection to the wire of the electric cable. In the three-dimensional structure, the contacts are formed by arranging the contacts of the first and second lead frames having a series of contacts formed in parallel to each other and bending the contacts so as to be arranged in a row parallel to each other. A multi-contact type connector assembly, wherein a housing block holds the contacts.